The Department of Homeland Security gave a local gay couple the only Valentine’s Day gift they were hoping for: the temporary delay of a deportation order that would have taken them a world away from one another.
On Feb. 14, just three hours before Anton Tanumihardja was scheduled for a flight back to his native Indonesia, DHS granted his request for an emergency stay, allowing him to remain in Philadelphia for the time being with his partner of seven months, Brian Andersen.
“We literally received the information in the last minute,” Andersen said Tuesday. “The best way to describe the situation, and I know this is cliché, is as if a weight was lifted from our shoulders. It gave us a chance to breathe a little and enjoy one another’s company.”
In honor of the occasion, the couple went out for a Valentine’s Day dinner at Café de Laos in South Philadelphia and, back at home, watched “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“This seems like a simple evening to most, but for us it was so incredibly special to have this opportunity to spend Valentine’s Day with that ‘someone special,’” Andersen said.
The stay allows Tanumihardja to remain in the country until the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on his motion to reopen his asylum case, a filing he submitted last September. A decision is anticipated before this September.
Tanumihardja came to Philadelphia on a six-month tourist visa in 2002 and, when that expired, he was granted a two-year work visa. Since that time, he has repeatedly sought asylum, citing the dangerous conditions facing gays in Indonesia, as well as Catholics and ethnic Chinese, two other groups with which he identifies.
His motion was repeatedly denied, and his final deportation was ordered for Feb. 14, although the BIA had not yet ruled on whether it would revisit his case.
The couple sought assistance from online campaign Stop the Deportations, which works for justice for same-sex binational couples. Under current U.S. immigration law, American citizens cannot sponsor a same-sex partner for citizenship, while heterosexual married couples can.
Stop the Deportations circulated the story and encouraged supporters to contact Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano and urge the delay.
“I knew the deportation branch had the power to make this decision,” said Lavi Soloway, co-founder of Stop the Deportations. “But I also appreciate that it’s difficult to take the time to review each and every case and make compassionate exceptions — I wish there were the resources for that. So this is a fairly extraordinary event that essentially has given Anton the opportunity to live to fight another day.”
Andersen said he and Tanumihardja know their relief could be short-lived if the BIA decides against reopening the case, at which time the deportation order would immediately go into effect.
“We are thankful for each and every moment we have together and have to treat it like our last,” he said. “This isn’t a permanent fix, but it is a bittersweet victory that will allow Anton and I to be together and continue to fight the battle to keep him in the U.S.”
Soloway said his organization will continue to offer support to the couple, who also pledged to work with Stop the Deportations to fight for more equal immigration treatment for same-sex couples.
Soloway said Tanumihardja’s ordeal puts a public face to a situation that countless couples have been made to endure.
“This is a very important learning moment for our community and for the administration,” he said. “This represents the plight of so many gay and lesbian American citizens who have partners who are foreign nationals and for whom no legal avenue exists to keep that person in the United States. That is the persistent, ongoing problem that needs to be addressed and what’s happened in the last few days with Anton is the epitome, the ultimate example, of the need for public-policy and discretionary measures put into place to ensure that these things aren’t happening, that gay and lesbian couples aren’t torn apart.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].